"To tell the truth he was most unwilling to speak to me at all, though he was anxious to be civil to me. When I had inquired for him some time in vain, he came to me with another man, and asked me to dinner. So I went, and as there were four of us, of course I could not speak to him then. He still had the other man, a foreigner—"
"Colonel Schmoff, perhaps?"
"Yes; Colonel Schmoff. He kept Colonel Schmoff by him, so as to guard him from being questioned."
"That is so like him. Everything he does he does with some design,—with some little plan. Well, Harry, you might have ignored Colonel Schmoff for what I should have cared."
"I got the count to come out into another room at last, and then he was very angry,—with me, you know,—and talked of what he would do to men who interfered with him."
"You will not quarrel with him, Harry? Promise me that there shall be no nonsense of that sort,—no fighting."
"Oh, no; we were friends again very soon. But he bade me tell you that there was something important for him to say and for you to hear, which was no concern of mine, and which required an interview."
"I do not believe him, Harry."
"And he said that he had once been very courteous to you—"
"Yes; once insolent,—and once courteous. I have forgiven the one for the other."